Just as the Raiders preparing to hit the field in San Diego to face the rival Chargers, a distraction has arisen. There are two reports from Jason LaCanfora that may have a common thread with regard to the Raiders coaching staff. The first has Dennis Allen being denied a request for his assistants to get an extension. The other has Canfora hearing some rumblings getting louder of Jon Gruden's interest in leaving the booth and coaching the Raiders again.

The contracts for Raiders assistants is up this off-season and if Allen were to be back after this season, he would want to have his staff with him. He ousted part of his staff last off-season when he fired offensive coordinator Greg Knapp, and special teams coordinator Steve Hoffman among others.

Those remaining include defensive coordinator Jason Tarver whose defensive schemes have come into question as the Raiders continue to get regress on defense as the season goes along including setting some records for points given up of late.

The reported denial of the extensions could signal the team is ready to move on from Allen and his staff or at least are waiting to see if anything changes in the next two games before making that decision.